A 43-year-old man broke into a South San Francisco house on Saturday, and stayed 14 hours, eating the occupants’ food, wearing their clothes, and taking a bath without draining the tub, before eventually being arrested.
Quite an odd story out of South San Francisco, as KTVU reports on a squatter breaking into a South SF home on Lassen Street on Saturday as the residents who live there had just left for a vacation. He stayed a total of 14 hours, eating their food, wearing their clothes, and muttering in a deranged fashion, as seen in home surveillance video obtained by KTVU seen below. And he would have stayed longer, but a pet sitter arrived at the house, whom he told was at the wrong house, and that sitter promptly alerted the police.
“He helped himself to all areas of the house," the unidentified homeowner told KTVU. "Of course, he didn't clean up any of the mess. He actually took a bath in our bathtub. He didn't even have the courtesy to even drain the tub."
Police did quickly arrive, and there was a several hour standoff before they could get the suspect, identified as 43-year-old Levi Joe Smith of Forestville, to leave the house. Officers say Smith threatened them with a knife in the process, and KTVU reports Smith did “an estimated $20,000 in damages” to the home. Though the lion's share of those damages may have been police shattering the back sliding glass door in an attempt to get in.
"I think there's a lot of chapters left to write in this story because the way he conducted himself was both with anger, but there appears to be some mental component to this," San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe told KTVU.
Smith’s odd behavior continued in detainment, as he refused to leave jail for his Monday arraignment. He refused again on Tuesday, when a judge assigned him a public defender and set bail at $75,000. Smith now has a preliminary hearing set for July 31.
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Image: Craig Howell via Wikimedia Commons